Other Craft Projects

SURPRISE… no card to share today, but instead I decided to do a little stamping on another medium to create a fun, handmade bangle!

This is a project for Honey Bee Stamps, where I am featured on the blog today! The project uses the long floral border image in the amazing Zen Florals set – I simply adore the way the flowers are all connected to create one cohesive image. It is darling! When I first pulled the stamp off its backing, whilst I was holding it in the palm of my hand (whilst looking for an acrylic block large enough to hold it), I instantly thought that it would make a really pretty pattern for a bangle. And of course, once I get a crafty notion into my head, there just isn’t any way to stop me!

I did have to do a little experimenting, but the good news is that I can share with you guys the way that yielded the best results, so you can give it a go too!

I started by pinching a few wooden craft sticks from my daughters room. Technically they are tongue depressors which we use to apply cream, but I’m pretty sure you can also find them in the craft aisle too. Next I carefully stamped the long border image onto the craft stick using some black Stazon ink.

After the Stazon was dry, I pulled out my Spectrum noir colouring pencils and picked some bright summery colours, and carefully coloured in the flowers. I kept a sharpener to hand because a really sharp lead makes it easier to colour in the detailed areas. Next up, I wanted to seal the wood. You may be able to use something like clear nail varnish, but I used a product that I have in my stash called MicroGlaze. It comes in a little pot and looks and feels a bit like a lip balm. You simply rub your finger onto the waxy surface of the glaze, then rub your project. It instantly creates a seal and your project is waterproof!

Up until this point, the wooden stick is straight and flat, so it could be used as a bookmark, but I wanted a bangle, so I needed to bend the wood. I placed the stick into a tupperware container of water, and left it overnight – about 6-12 hours works well.

In the morning, I took the stick out from the water and the stick was more pliable. I was able to carefully bend it and then I placed it inside a narrow glass to dry for the rest of the day. Once it was completely dry, i could remove it from the glass, and it magically held its shape!! Isn’t it fun! I did go back over the images with another layer of coloured pencil, a little white gel pen and a final layer of micro glaze, and this really made the colours pop.

Why don’t you give it a try! But I would recommend that you hide your new creation from your daughters…. as my beautiful new bangle was promptly swiped by my five year old! But seriously, how could she resist?!

Hello crafty friends, thanks for joining me today, when I am sharing a HungryHeffyCrafts doodle with you guys! A few months ago I drew a sketch of our team at work, and then a colleague asked me to paint something to go on baby Austin’s nursery wall.

I sketched around for ages and then ….totally forgot about it! WHOOOPSIE!

Finally this past weekend, I was reinvigorated to get the project finished. I am quite pleased with how it turned out! Apart from the fact that I am kicking myself about one thing….when I uploaded the photos to my computer I suddenly realised that there should not be an apostrophe! UGHHHHH! How irritating! This is why I shouldn’t spell at half past midnight!!

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy a few photos of the finished piece.

I used both my Koi watercolours and Winsor and Newton watercolour paints, first, and then used my spectrum noir colouring pencils to add detail and to outline the images.

So the whole family is Liz, Chris, Maggie, Monty and baby Austin! I swear I have stalked poor Liz’s Facebook photos so much in a bid to get the sketches just right! LOL

A few weeks ago I shared this fun sneak peek of a project that I was working on, and now I can finally share the finished piece with all of you! hurray!

My friend Rebekah, yoga teacher, awesome supermom and creator of the amazingly popular poem Slow Down Mummy, contacted me and asked me to make something unique for her daughter Ellie’s birthday!

Ellie loves unicorns, so Rebekah wanted something fun and colourful that would brighten up Ellie’s room.

I love having a secret mission, so I set to work sketching and plotting and figuring out what i would make!

and here is the finished piece! TA-DA!

I loved how it turned out! YAY!

I sketched the unicorn in my sketchbook, and then using a light box, traced it onto some watercolour cardstock. I wanted to build some dimension, so i used a paper piecing or decoupage technique to build up different layers.

I used my distress ink to add colour to the project. I love how soft and sweet it looks! I used a little bit of pink watercolour for the cheeks though!

Notice the hair and how much it shines! This is a material that i have had in my stash for a long time. I believe it is called Angel Hair, and you can iron it together between two pieces of parchment paper, and all the fibres fuse together. I bundled up sections and then ironed to top edge so they would all stay together. Then i tucked the ironed sections behind so you cannot see it from the front. I had to use some double sided sticky tape to encourage the fibres to lie in the right direction, but i think it turned out fab!

For the horn, I wanted extra shimmer, because we all know that unicorn horns are extra magical! So i added a coating of ranger rock candy distress stickles!

For the clouds, i used a MyFavoriteThings die and cut several of them, and creased them down the middle. Each cloud on the project is made up for four die cut shapes.

I also used dies to create the cloud background. This time i used the MamaElephant stitched landscape trios die. For the rainbow, I used the simple stitched border dies from lawn fawn, once again coloured using distress inks!

Rebekah wanted me to add some text that said ‘I don’t believe in humans’. LOL! I decided to practise my brush writing and add a little hand lettering to the project! It was fun, but uber difficult to get the writing so small. I had to use a teeny weeny paintbrush, i think it was 3/0.

For extra dimension, I reached for my tub of embellishments, and added some sparkly star confetti and some yummy buttons! Then I was done! I bought a white shadow box frame from amazon and popped the project inside! WOOOHOOO!

And today was the big day! Happy Birthday Ellie! I hope you had a wonderful day and you like your new unicorn frame, made especially for YOU! <3

Before you go, here’s a little photo that Rebekah shared- so you can see it in the frame! Enjoy!
Have a great day!

Hey everyone… a bonus video to share with you today. And, for a change, it isn’t a card! Last year we ordered a fancy schmancy birthday cake for Piper’s birthday, and although it was pretty and delicious, it was rather pricey. This year, because i was doing waaaaaayy more planning for the party, i decided […]